Hey!! Let's get some action going! What are we reading?

[gmw]

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle. A children's fantasy. I liked the start of this, it introduced some interesting characters, but it lost with me with the intrusive religious/spiritual messaging, and it seemed to get more condescending as it progressed. But it was short and quite sweet in its own way, just targeted at a rather more innocent (naïve?) audience than many children's tales, with not much in there for the adult reader. 2/5.

Wakenhyrst by Michelle Paver. Some describe this as Gothic Horror but I'd go along with those that call it Historic Fiction - real history can be horrific enough. It has an odd sort of beginning and a little slow in parts but intriguing enough to keep me reading. I particularly liked that how the story trod a fine line between historical fiction and fantasy. It is an intimate recital and you feel quite strongly for the main protagonist. A strong 4/5.

Mammoth by John Varley. Contemporary made-for-TV science fiction. The idea was cute: take the old cliché of the anachronistic wristwatch and make it real. Pull in a grab bag from other popular fiction: Jurassic Park, Ice Age, Batman and probably more that I missed, and stir. It should have been fun, but someone forgot to hire an editor. Long soliloquies highlighting the weaknesses of the story, and lengthy expositions about character background (the characters were not that deep). But I did finish it. 2/5.

Genesis, Equinox and Dark Star, which make up The Rosie Black Chronicles by Lara Morgan. Young Adult science fiction set mostly in Western Australia. I thought the first book showed promise so kept reading but it didn't really pick up. The young protagonists do show all the annoying traits you expect of the age group, so arguably more realistic than some YA, but this doesn't make them endearing. Some of it felt a bit cheesy, and many aspects felt like they could have been better explored, but I was kept entertained enough to finish, so giving it a 3/5 (for the series and for each book).


Given the underwhelming last few books I think I'll head off to something completely different for a while ... probably some non-fiction.

[spacepope]

Finished Jurassic Park and that second half was so boring (outside Ian Malcolm's morphone-induced dialogues, which I loved). I might be rewatching the film tomorrow.

That second half was boring enough that I feel like I am gonna be in a reading slump if I don't pick up something that's thoughtful and light right away.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by gmw

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle. A children's fantasy. I liked the start of this, it introduced some interesting characters, but it lost with me with the intrusive religious/spiritual messaging, and it seemed to get more condescending as it progressed. But it was short and quite sweet in its own way, just targeted at a rather more innocent (naïve?) audience than many children's tales, with not much in there for the adult reader. 2/5.

I’m not surprised to learn that this one’s showing its age. 60 years! And L’Engle was a devout Episcopalian and religion played a part in all her books. I liked it as a girl, but I suspect I’d be hard-pressed to find much enjoyable about it now. At that, I think I didn’t care for the sequels even at the time.

[gmw]

Originally Posted by issybird

I’m not surprised to learn that this one’s showing its age. 60 years! And L’Engle was a devout Episcopalian and religion played a part in all her books. I liked it as a girl, but I suspect I’d be hard-pressed to find much enjoyable about it now. At that, I think I didn’t care for the sequels even at the time.

It's one of those well known books that I don't think I'd ever read, so I wanted to see what it was about. The opening raised my hopes for it, I thought all the kids showed great promise as characters, and even the "witches" at first, but things went downhill fairly fast after that. I don't know what I'd have made of it as a child; I liked the Narnia books well enough.

[CRussel]

I hated the Narnia books, found them WAY too preachy for this Protestant raised atheist. OTOH, I remember very much enjoying A Wrinkle in Time back in my youth. I suspect I would no longer find it so appealing, and frankly, at my age, I really don't feel a need to read books I won't enjoy.

[Paperbackstash]

Originally Posted by spacepope

Finished Jurassic Park and that second half was so boring (outside Ian Malcolm's morphone-induced dialogues, which I loved). I might be rewatching the film tomorrow.

That second half was boring enough that I feel like I am gonna be in a reading slump if I don't pick up something that's thoughtful and light right away.

Curious if you read it or did audio? I loved it years back when I read it, but when I tried to listen to the audiobook for some reason it bored me to tears. No idea why.

[haertig]

Originally Posted by spacepope

Finished Jurassic Park and that second half was so boring...

I remember reading it decades ago thinking to myself, "I thought the movie was good, but the book is much better." I remember the time reading it clearly - we were down at the Padre Island beach (maybe it was Mustang Island) in south Texas a couple of decades ago, nighttime, in the hotel, everyone was asleep except for me. Sitting in the bathroom in the middle of the night plowing through the book (only place I could have the light on and not disturb the rest of the family). I guess I wasn't bored with it!

I just re-watched the movie about 3 weeks ago. Actually, I went on a binge and watched all five of the movies in the franchise. My wife was at a medical conference in Hawaii, sending pictures, which made me think of the filming locations, and, well, there you go. I had to re-watch them. The first movie was the best. The book was better. The second book - I have it in my collection, but honestly can't remember if I read it or not. So if I did read it, it didn't make much of an impression on me evidently.

[spacepope]

Originally Posted by haertig

The first movie was the best. The book was better. The second book - I have it in my collection, but honestly can't remember if I read it or not. So if I did read it, it didn't make much of an impression on me evidently.

Thanks for your comment! I can see why the book was so loved, and I think what I really liked about the book over the movie was the emphasis on science being divorced from ethics being one of the biggest threats of our modern age. I highlighted many passages that went into that.

But for me, I sometimes have problem reading action sequences and understanding how everything fits together and imagining it in my head. So towards the end, where Crichton is focusing exclusively on the rush to safety (or death) for all the characters, I had a terrible time following along and it lead to just being extremely boring (for me).

I do want to read more Michael Crichton, his ideas are really interesting and I loved his deep dive into the science behind Jurrasic Park.

[covingtoncat73]

D: A Tale of Two Worlds by Michael Faber. It's very good so far!

[Fbone]

Finished the Murderbot short story "Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory" by Martha Wells. Not much here. I guess it provides background info on Dr Mensah that is referenced in later books. Rated C- [3 stars].

Then I read the second of Kenneth Oppel's The Overthrow trilogy, Hatch.
This started very slow. Very. Most of the book were the kids in government detention being studied while much more exciting things happen outside. I had to chuckle on how fast scientific discoveries were made. The ending was better ... some excitement at least. The teens still whiney. Writing still solid. Rated C- [2 stars].

I'll go right into the final book Thrive.

[issybird]

It’s been a while since I posted here.

Right now, I’m reading:

• Machine Made: Tammany Hall and the Creation of Modern American Politics by Terry Galway, a revisionist history of Tammany Hlall which says it wasn’t all that bad, or at least understandable. Excellent.
  
• The Snows of Yesteryear by Gregor von Ressori, a memoir of growing up in the Balkans in the interval between wars. Lushly written and evocative; I’m enjoying it.
  
• Sharpe’s Assassin by Bernard Cornwell, Cornwell’s return to Sharpe in the immediate aftermath of Waterloo. This, unfortunately, is Sharpe-light and needed more effort from Cornwell plus an editor. Just one example of an irritant: Sharpe addresses an inferior officer as “Sir” and said officer calls him Sharpe.

[Apache]

Originally Posted by issybird

It’s been a while since I posted here.

Right now, I’m reading:

• Machine Made: Tammany Hall and the Creation of Modern American Politics by Terry Galway, a revisionist history of Tammany Hlall which says it wasn’t all that bad, or at least understandable. Excellent.
  
• The Snows of Yesteryear by Gregor von Ressori, a memoir of growing up in the Balkans in the interval between wars. Lushly written and evocative; I’m enjoying it.
  
• Sharpe’s Assassin by Bernard Cornwell, Cornwell’s return to Sharpe in the immediate aftermath of Waterloo. This, unfortunately, is Sharpe-light and needed more effort from Cornwell plus an editor. Just one example of an irritant: Sharpe addresses an inferior officer as “Sir” and said officer calls him Sharpe.

That is something Sharpe would never do or put up with.
Apache

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Apache

That is something Sharpe would never do or put up with.

Exactly! And the exchange happened more than once. I don’t see how Cornwell could have written it, nor do I see how it wasn’t caught by somebody in the production process.

[DrNefario]

I'm reading the third Wolf Hall book, The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel. I'm enjoying it, but it's fairly slow going and it's pretty long. I borrowed the epub from one of my local libraries. I have 21 days, I've used about 8, and I'm not even a third of the way through. Uh oh.

I keep wanting to read up on the history, but I also don't want to spoiler myself. I know remarkably little about it given that it's one of the most famous periods of my own country's history.

[Apache]

Originally Posted by issybird

Exactly! And the exchange happened more than once. I don’t see how Cornwell could have written it, nor do I see how it wasn’t caught by somebody in the production process.

That is a big turnoff for me and I don't think I will be reading it.
Apache